This invention relates to tubular articles of manufacture and the method of making the same, and, more particularly, to tubular articles of manufacture and the method of making the same, wherein, during the manufacture of such tubular articles, and after the initial forming thereof, subsequent manufacturing steps are taken, such as, for example, the forming of external spines or fins thereon in the manufacture of a heat exchanger.
It is a primary object of the present invention to afford a novel method of making a tubular article of manufacture.
Another object is to afford a novel tubular article of manufacture.
A further object of the present invention is to afford a novel method of making a heat exchanger.
Yet another object is to afford a novel heat exchanger.
Although, in its broader aspects, it is not limited thereto, the present invention relates to, and is particularly well adapted for affording heat exchangers of the general nature of the heat exchangers shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,202,212, 3,229,722, 3,692,105, 3,746,086, 3,850,236, 3,866,286, 3,877,517, 3,886,639, 3,901,312 and 3,947,941, wherein spines or fins are sliced, cut or gouged from walls of tubular members.
Oftentimes, in the manufacture of tubular articles of manufacture, wherein additional manufacturing steps are performed after the initial forming of a tubular member, the performing of the additional manufacturing steps poses a substantial problem. For example, if tubular members of narrow width are initially formed and subsequent manufacturing steps, such as, for example, the fin-forming steps disclosed in the aforementioned patents, are to be performed, it has been found that it oftentimes is extremely difficult, if not impossible to securely hold the tubular member against twisting, turning or other movement during the performance of the additional manufacturing steps. This is particularly true when the height of the tubular member exceeds the width or base thereof. It is an important object of the present invention to enable such difficulties to be overcome in a novel and expeditious manner.
Another disadvantage of performing such additional manufacturing steps on relatively small, individual tubular members is the time element and expense involved. Performing such manufacturing steps on individual tubular members, one-by-one, is relatively slow and time consuming and, normally, is undesirable from the standpoint of efficient manufacturing. In the past, in an endeavor to overcome such difficulties and disadvantages, efforts have been made to simultaneously perform the aforementioned additional manufacturing steps on a plurality of such individual tubular members. For example, efforts have been made to clamp or otherwise hold a plurality of such individual tubular members in side-by-side relation to each other and to simultaneously perform the additional manufacturing steps, such as, for example, the forming of fins thereon in the manner disclosed in the aforementioned patents. This has the advantage, when and if successful, of being more efficient and less time-consuming in the forming of the fins, or the like, such manufacturing steps being performed on a plurality of tubular members simultaneously, rather than being performed on each individual tubular member, alone. However, such procedure has several inherent disadvantages.
For example, for one thing, it has been found to be extremely difficult to hold such a plurality of individual tubular members in fully stationary position relative to each other during a complete fin-forming series of steps, or the like. When such tubular members are not reliably held in properly indexed relation to each other throughout a complete operation of the aforementioned type, it is impossible to afford tubular members of uniform quality.
Another inherent disadvantage, which has come to our intention, is that even when an operator is successful in fully stationarily holding such individual tubular members in indexed relation to each other during a complete series of such manufacturing steps, the tubular members, themselves, often vary sufficiently in dimension that the end products afforded by the individual tubular members are not uniform in size. For example, it has been found that when an extrusion is made, and, particularly, when a long extrusion is made, because of what is believed to be the contraction or expansion of the parts of the extrusion die by reason of differences in temperature, and the like, the tubular member produced at the beginning of the operation oftentimes is of a different outside size than that produced later in the operation. As a result, when such a long extrusion is subsequently cut up into shorter lengths to afford the individual tubular members, which are to be placed in side-by-side relation to each other for the aforementioned simultaneous performance of manufacturing steps on the plurality of tubular members, the differences in size make it difficult to effectively clamp or otherwise hold the individual tubular members in fully stationary relation to each other; and, even when they are successively so held, the differences in size of the side-by-side portions of the tubular members causes variations in the results of the operations on the various tubular members. For example, when fins are being simultaneously cut on such side-by-side tubular members across the full lateral width of such a cluster of tubular members, the differences in size of the different tubular members commonly causes the formation of fins of different lengths on adjacent ones of tubular members. It is another important object of the present invention to enable disadvantages of the aforementioned type to be overcome in a novel and expeditious manner.
Another object of the present invention is to enable a plurality of tubular members, which at the completion of the manufacturing operations thereon will constitute individual, or, at least, groups of a lesser number of tubular members, to be initially afforded as a single, unitary structure on which the aforementioned additional manufacturing steps may be performed simultaneously on all of the members; and to enable such members to be, thereafter, quickly and easily separated from each other in a novel and expeditious manner.
Another object of the present invention is to afford a novel blank from which individual tubular members may be separated.
Another object of the present invention is to enable such separation to be quickly and easily effected while affording a blank of the aforementioned type which has sufficient structural strength and integrity as to insure that the aforementioned additional manufacturing steps properly may be performed thereon.
Yet another object of the present invention is to afford a novel heat exchanger embodying fins projecting outwardly from opposite lateral sides thereof and a novel rib extending outwardly from at least one other lateral side, which latter side extends between the first mentioned lateral sides.
An object ancillary to the foregoing is to enable a ribbed and finned heat exchanger of the aforementioned type to be produced in a novel and expeditious manner.
Other and further objects of the present invention will be apparent from the following description and claims and are illustrated in the accompanying drawings which, by way of illustration show preferred embodiments of the present invention and the principles thereof and what we now consider to be the best mode in which we have contemplated applying these principles. Other embodiments of the present invention embodying the same or equivalent principles may be used and structural changes may be made as desired by those skilled in the art without departing from the present invention and the purview of the appended claims.